This past weekend we spent over at the parental's building two raised veggie beds. They didn't have much room in their actual yard for these planters so we decided to clean out one side of the alley and build them there. The only problem was- there was a literal mountain of dirt that had been there for who knows how long- plus yard waste and pallets.
Once we cleared out all of the pallets and debris, we began pulling old pieces of cedar and lining them up on the road to figure out which pieces weren't warped. Using reclaimed pieces of wood allowed us to make both beds for just $20. We measured out the length of all the boards and marked them, and John used a circular saw to cut down all of the individual pieces. We used 2x4s for all of the sides and 4x4s for the corner braces. Two screws held each board to the corner joints, and one brace in the center of the longest sides kept the bed from bowing once filled with dirt. I realize these pictures make it look like John did all the work but I was there, I promise.
We ended up with the first bed measuring 123" x 69" because that made for the fewest cuts and was the perfect width to allow the snow plow access to the road in the winter. The second bed ended up being 100" x 69". To protect the seeds from scavenging birds and inclement weather, we constructed a cover using PVC pipes. We used a 1" diameter pipe that was cut down and screwed into the bed with pipe strapping. This created a "holder" for the 1/2" pipe that we bent over the top of each box. The large bed had three hoops, the smaller one only used two. And we did not cut the 1/2" pipe at all. At this stage I am pretty sure the neighbors thought we were making a covered wagon... The hoops make it easy to drape a clear tarp over to create a mini greenhouse for seedling.
